A rare little gem for this week’s pick of the week.
You may think it is Arabic, but it is not.
It comes from a related but much, much older language.
It’s actually Akkadian — the Semitic language of Ancient Mespotamia — one of the earliest ever written languages in the world.
Often separated into its two principal dialects — Babylonian and Assyrian — it flourished between the third and first millennia BCE.
Zaqar derives from the verb zakāru, meaning “to speak,” “to name,” and “to swear. “
The Hebrew cognate is zakar, which crops up a few times in the Bible meaning “to remember,” “to call to mind,” “to remind” and “to invoke.” It is also found in the name Zachariah — often Anglicized as Zachary — “Yahweh remembers” or “memory of “Yahweh.” and all its related forms.
The Phoenician was identical, and featured in the name Zakar-Baal “Baal remembers” or “memory of Baal,” the name of a king of Byblos in the eleventh century BCE.
Meanwhile, the Arabic cognate gives the names Zakir (also transliterated as Zaakir), meaning “remembering,” and Zakoor “narrator” and “speaker.”
Zaqar was the name of the Mesopotamian God of dreams — also known as Zakar and Dzakar — who acts as the messenger of the moon God Sin.
Unsurprisingly, he delivers these messages in dreams.
As such, he represents one of the oldest examples of the belief that dreams contain messages and prophecies from supernatural or divine sources.
The peoples of Mesopotamia, like their neighbors the Hebrews, were particularly prone to reading a great deal into dreams.
They read a great deal into everything.
Divination featured very highly in Mesopotamian life, and strongly influenced people’s lives — including decisions taken by kings on matters of state.
In the Epic of Shulgi, for instance, Zaqar takes a message to the Sumerian King Shulgi telling him that the Gods will aid him in battle. Secure in this knowledge, Shulgi trots of to war and successfully annihilates his enemy.
Fast-forwarding a few millennia, and Zaqar is now one of a number of Egyptian and Mesopotamian deities commemmorated in the names given to craters on Jupiter’s largest moon (and the largest moon in the solar system), Ganymede.
So if you’re looking for a more unusual long form of Zac, Zack, Zak — or even Zaq — with history and excellent Pagan connections, why not consider the evocative and exotic Zaqar?
Nook of Names
